"La Possession" (“The Possession”) 45 photographs, text Following a residency at the Cité des Arts, Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France (2020) From the first inhabitants of the island of Reunion, twelve mutineers from Fort-Dauphin who were abandoned in the middle of the 17th century, to the "modern-day robinsons" who nowadays bivouac or live in huts and caves, via the thousands of slaves who, for 200 years, freed themselves from their condition by leaving to live in the mountains, it seems that the robinsonnades have not stopped. The Possession attempts to bring together narratives, landscapes and portraits, considering the imaginary of the desert island and the colonial past of Bourbon Island in order to question the concept of inhabiting and our relationship to nature. Text accompanying the images: Situated not far from the limits of the world known to the ancients, it seems [that Bourbon Island] remained deserted until the 17th century, to show modern times that the legendary delights of the cradle of humanity were not a myth. These islands had no past. They were still in prehistoric times when our close ancestors landed there. Better still, it was as if they had remained in the time of Creation, at the dawn of the sixth day, before the appearance of man. There were no, there had never been any natives, any indigenous people, on this land made for man. A proof of the total solitude in which this island had remained is given by this incredible fact, related by several of the first navigators who stopped there, that the big birds let themselves be taken by hand. They were unaware of man, and had never had to protect themselves from him or from any animal seeking its prey. We see, in fact, the first men exiled from Madagascar to Bourbon, walking under the shade of large trees, in a delicious place, where pure water flows in abundance, where excellent fruits are offered to their hands; we see them almost naked, surrounded by innocent animals which, far from fleeing from their approach, crowd around them, seeming to pay homage to masters cherished in advance and long awaited. The Arabs, as early as the Middle Ages, saw the Mascarene Islands (Bourbon, Mauritius and Rodrigue Island), and very old maps seem to bear witness to this. But the absence of a natural harbour, the steepness of the coastline, and the superstitious fear provoked by the island's volcano, that mountain "where there is always fire", made it impossible for those who passed through to land there. The first "inhabitants" of Bourbon Island were twelve mutineers from the Fort-Dauphin establishment in Madagascar, twelve convicts whom the commander M. de Pronis, overcome with scruples before putting them to the sword, had sent to this desert island in 1646, in order to be rid of them forever. Many sorrows have crossed the childhood of this colony. How many glimmers of prosperity followed by prolonged eclipses! But afterwards, where can one find so many brilliant initiatives, so much poetic genius in such a small terrestrial circumference? What happy efforts to shine through to the bosom of the mother country! The twelve exiles [...] spoke of the wonders of the goodness and fertility of this island. The land is very fertile and fat, the tobacco is the best in the world; the melons are very tasty, the seeds of which were brought there by these miserable exiles. This makes it possible to judge that all sorts of vegetables and fruits will grow there wonderfully. The waters are pure and very excellent, which it is good to see falling along the ravines of the mountains from basin to basin, in the form of such admirable cascades, that it seems that nature has made them so, in order to entice the men who see them to remain in the island. The air is very healthy, and although it must be very hot, it is tempered by fresh winds which come from the sea during the day and from the mountains at night. It would be right to call this island a paradise on earth. The waters are pure and very excellent, which it is good to see falling along the ravines of the mountains from basin to basin, in the form of such admirable cascades, that it seems that nature has made them so, in order to entice the men who see them to remain in the island. The woods are very beautiful, in which there is reason to walk, not being embarrassed by thorns, bushes and ramps. There is plenty of white pepper and pepper with a tail which the doctors call cubebe; there is hebene and other woods of various colours, some of which are suitable for building houses and ships, the others carry odoriferous gums, as well as benzoin is found in quantity. About a hundred leagues south of Bourbon, there is an island frequented by pirates, to which the name of Joan or Jean de Lisboa is given. The existence of this island was considered by some a chimera and by others a reality. What gave rise to doubt was that there was less and less agreement on the shape of the island. Twenty navigators had seen it at different times. The round, the oval, the crescent, the hooked and the pointed, appearing in turn in the lectures, competed for the advantage of representing the mysterious land, wandering perhaps, which alternately showed itself and hid itself in the fogs of the Indian Ocean. The effects of mirage frequently noticed in the Indian Ocean, at considerable distances, maintained this legend which lasted one hundred and fifty years after the establishment of the colony of Bourbon. Astronomy invents stars and finds them. Hydrography has not been nearly as successful. The islands it dreamed of remained in the state of a dream. Text composed from fragments of the books (here translated into English): I. « Les origines de l’île de Bourbon et de la colonisation française à Madagascar », M. Isidore Guët, archiviste – bibliothécaire de l’administration centrale des colonies. Charles Bayle, Editeur, 1888 (Paris). II. « Les premiers colons de l’île Bourbon », Alfred Rosset. Editions du cerf-volant, 1967 (France).